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Spring Arena

Saturday, 25 March 2017

PMB’s Health: Gloating is of no value By FEMI ADESINA

I learnt an enduring lesson on the
day General Sani Abacha died. It was June 8, 1998, and death had laid its icy
hands on the maximum ruler, and the scepter had fallen from the grip of the
king.

I was deputy editor of National Concord, the
newspaper owned by Basorun M.K. O Abiola, the man Abacha not only inveigled out
of his mandate as democratically elected President, but whom he had also locked
up in military gulag for five years.

Mr Dele Alake, who was to become Commissioner
for Information and Strategy in Lagos State for eight years, was editor, but he
had travelled on the fateful day. So, the lot fell on me to produce the
newspaper, as the deputy editor. Dr (Mrs) Doyin Abiola was Managing
Director/Editor-in-Chief.

President Muhammadu Buhari Naturally, on a
great news day like that, an editor would leave his office, and be on the shop
floor, ensuring that the newspaper was swiftly produced. Time was of the essence,
if you would partake in the harvest of sales the next day. So, I was in the
computer room downstairs, editing the news stories as they were typed at the
speed of light.

It was there that Dr Abiola met me,
as she prepared to go home about 7 p.m. She said something that both baffled
and amazed me: “Editor, no gloating. We have every reason to rejoice that
Abacha is dead, but no gloating. Just present the news as professionally as
possible. Don’t gloat!” I thanked her, and she left. Her instruction continued
to ring in my ears, and was followed to the letter.

Those who read National Concord the next day
would recall that there was no sense of triumphalism, no newsman’s orgasm of
any kind, in the treatment of the story. Just professionally done. “Don’t
gloat!” Did Doyin Abiola have reasons to instruct her newspaper to preen and
gloat about Abacha’s death? Every. He had given the impression that he would
take over power, and hand over to Abiola, who had won the June 12, 1993,
presidential election, which the military annulled. Instead, he locked the man
up in solitary confinement.

Doyin did not see her husband for five years.
Also, Abacha had shut down Concord Press for about two years, causing the
company grave economic afflictions. Under him, Kudirat Abiola, one of Doyin’s
mates, had been murdered, shot down in the streets, allegedly on the orders of
the state. And many more evil deeds. Dr Doyin Abiola had every cause to waltz,
and do a jig, at the death of Sani Abacha. But she did not. She even told her
editor:

“Don’t gloat!” I never forgot, and will never
forget that lesson. It is human, and it is also divine. Between January 19 and
March 10, of this year, President Muhammadu Buhari was away in London, first on
routine holiday where he would do normal medical check-ups, and then, it became
a medical vacation, in which he had to ask for an indeterminate number of days.

Yes, who is he or she that never falls sick,
let that person cast the first stone. As the President frankly confessed on his
return, he had never been that sick in his life. Human, just human. Presidents,
kings, queens, potentates, wealthy people, are also human, aren’t they? They
itch as well, and scratch as hard. Sickness, not only death, is often a leveler
among all mortals, young, old, poor, rich, dull, brilliant, ugly, beautiful,
everybody. And we know what attended the President’s medical sojourn from
certain quarters in the country.

Wild news. Hate news. Rumour. Evil thinking.
Even, gloating. They did all kinds of photoshops, and spewed all kinds of evil
stories. They passed round outright wickedness on WhatsApp, and those of us who
debunked their evil tales became enemies. They tried to tag us with all kind of
labels, saying we were liars and deceivers. But wise was the man who said: “The
truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice
may distort it, but there it is.” Or our own Professor Tam David-West, in his
book, Philosophical Essays, also said: “Truth like the cork cannot sink. It
cannot be sunk.

It always floats.” When President Buhari spoke
with me on phone from London on February 25, I was elated, and issued a press
statement, detailing our conversation. Many Nigerians, good people from a great
nation, who could get hold of my phone number, called. They would ask if truly
we had spoken. Once I confirmed, they broke into tears of joy, crying like
babies. They brought tears to my eyes many times. Till this son of hate, a
purveyor of evil and tragedy, called. He identified himself as Jude (I decide
to withhold his other name for now).

He said: “Mr Adesina, you claim to have spoken
with President Buhari. When are you going to stop this political deceit? How
can you speak with a man who is long dead, and you are deceiving the public
that he’s still alive?” I didn’t argue with the man (though I was tempted to
call him sonofagun, the son of a gun).

I held my peace, let him finish his orgy of
evil, and calmly cut off the phone. Doomsday prophets. Evil thinkers. Peddlers
of mischief. Then, on March 10, the President returned. Ecstasy and pure
rapture from good Nigerians, who had been praying and supplicating unto God.
Mai Gaskiya was back.

The honest man had returned. Ramrod
straight, man of integrity. He had been spared by God, and restored to us. Oh,
glory! Did you listen to that short speech that President Buhari read on his
return? Did you listen to his off the cuff remarks? Was there any gloating?
None. Did he rub it in on those who had peddled evil news, fake news, hate
news? No

. That is maturity. That is how to
be the father of a country. And I remembered Dr Doyin Abiola: “Don’t gloat!” Do
you know what some other people would have done in the same circumstance? They
would have taken evil minded people to the cleaners. But not President Buhari.

They would have made snide remarks
about peddlers of hate news, calling fire and brimstone to fall upon them. But
not our President. He would have been justified if he did so. The Good Book
says, “He that digs a pit shall fall into it. He that rolls a stone, a stone
will roll back at him. He that breaks the hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” So,
President Buhari would have been justified, if he gave evil people some jabs.
But he did not.

What a heart! Father forgive them, for they
know not what they do. How did that Jude Somebody feel when the President
returned? He even bears Jude, a Christian name. How embarrassing! But he was
full of bile, in the gall and throes of bitterness. May God forgive him. Amen.
With President Buhari’s health saga, some truths have been brought to bold
relief once again. Anybody can be sick. Big or small man. A man of power, or a
man of no consequence. Let us therefore be conscious of our mortality at all
times.

I can testify, from my many private
discussions with him, that President Buhari is a man keenly aware of his own
mortality at all times. A worthy example to follow. Another lesson. Life and
death are the sole preserves of God Almighty. Despite all those concoctions and
contraptions, fake pictures, false stories on WhatsApp, mendacious newspaper
reports, President Buhari came back alive. Who says anything that God has not
said? There are many devices in the heart of man, but it is the counsel of God
that shall stand. The counsel of God has prevailed concerning Nigeria, and
concerning our President. Let us learn the eternal truth. No matter the devices
in the heart of man, the counsel of God stands. It is not me that says so. It
is straight from the Good Book. From March 10, when President Buhari returned,
purveyors of evil have disappeared. Vanished! Utterly transmuted, like Brother
Jero, in that work by Wole Soyinka.

Even on social media, where they had held sway
for many weeks, they evaporated. Like a beaten dog, they had their tails
between their feet, and ran for cover. But should we rejoice? “Don’t gloat!”

There is nothing we have, that we did not
receive from above. So, why boast? Why gloat? Rather, we should be thankful to
God. The President has thanked millions of people who prayed. And they continue
to pray. Olorun da Baba si fun wa. God, please, spare Baba for us.

Let him take us to the Promised Land. A land
that is secure, free completely of Boko Haram, flowing with milk and honey. A
land where corrupt people get their just desserts, ending behind bars. A land
where human life has value, where wanton killings stop, where justice and
equity covers the space, like the waters cover the sea. A land where mischief
makers repent, and turn to God. Where is that Jude Somebody? I kept his number.

I feel like calling him, saying “Son of a gun,
how now?” But I shouldn’t do it. And I won’t do it. Because I remember Dr
Abiola’s instruction: “Don’t gloat!” .

Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and
Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari